IV 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. RES. 139 

Condemning violence against religious minorities in the Middle East and 

any actions that limit the free expression and practice of faith by these 

minorities. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 3, 2015 

Mrs. BLACK (for herself, Mr. PEARCE, Mr. LATTA, Mr. HUELSKAMP, Mrs. 

WALORSKI, Mrs. ELLMERS of North Carolina, Mr. NEUGEBAUER, Mrs. 

WAGNER, Mrs. MCMORRIS RODGERS, and Mrs. HARTZLER) submitted 

the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 

Affairs 

RESOLUTION 

Condemning violence against religious minorities in the Middle East and any actions that limit the free expression 

and practice of faith by these minorities. 

Whereas international law recognizes the right to religious 

liberty and the right to worship and manifest one’s faith 

of choice freely without fear of discrimination; 

Whereas Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human 

Rights states that ‘‘everyone has the right to freedom of 

thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either 

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•HRES 139 IH 

vate, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance’’; 

Whereas the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) states that ‘‘everyone shall have the 

right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This 

right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion 

or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or 

in community with others and in public or private, to 

manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, 

practice and teaching . . . [and] no one shall be subject 

to coercion which would impair his freedom to have or to 

adopt a religion or belief of his choice’’; 

Whereas the Pew Research Center found that as of 2012 

nearly a quarter of the world’s nations and territories 

have anti-blasphemy laws or policies, and laws restricting 

blasphemy and apostasy are most common in the Middle 

East and North Africa, where 14 of 20 countries criminalize blasphemy and apostasy; 

Whereas the rights and safety of religious minorities in the 

Middle East have increasingly come under attack over 

the last several years as a result of violence and instability throughout the region, with many religious minorities being singled out and specifically targeted because of 

their faiths; 

Whereas more than 2 million people have been internally displaced in Iraq or have become refugees in third party 

countries due to sectarian fighting or targeting by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also known as the 

Islamic State (IS) and the Islamic State of Iraq and the 

Levant (ISIL); 


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•HRES 139 IH 

Whereas, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring 

Center (IDMC), at least 469,000 people were displaced 

in June and July 2014 alone after ISIS took control of 

Iraq’s second city of Mosul and fighting spread across 

Ninewa and the governorates of Salah al Din, Diyala and 

Kirkuk, as well as other cities in Anbar governorate; 

Whereas ISIS has brutally massacred, murdered, and 

enslaved thousands of Christians, Shiites, Yazidis, Druze, 

Shabaks, Mandeans, and other religious minority groups 

that do not conform to its radical ideology, including reportedly kidnapping more than 100 Assyrian Christians 

in northeastern Syria; 

Whereas the Syrian Civil War, which has resulted in an estimated 6,500,000 people being internally displaced, and 

more than 3,800,000 million registered refugees and tens 

of thousands more unregistered, has led to widespread 

sectarian violence committed by the Assad regime, ISIS, 

and other extremist and terrorist groups, and reports of 

religious cleansing and escalating attacks against Christian minorities; 

Whereas a 2014 United Nations report found that the Iranian government continues to arrest and imprison Christians, Baha’is, Zoroastrians, and other religious minorities simply because of their faith, including pastor Saeed 

Abedini, an American citizen who was imprisoned in 

2012 for alleged crimes related to his Christian faith; 

Whereas Coptic Christians have been targeted and violently 

attacked for their beliefs by groups such as the Muslim 

Brotherhood in Egypt, including a four-day series of attacks in August 2013 that destroyed 38 Coptic churches, 

58 Coptic-owned houses, and 85 Coptic businesses, and 


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by ISIS, which kidnapped and viciously murdered 21 

Copts in Libya in February 2015; 

Whereas Congress unanimously passed the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998, making it the official policy 

of the United States ‘‘to condemn violations of religious 

freedom, and to promote, and to assist other governments 

in the promotion of, the fundamental right to freedom of 

religion’’ and to ‘‘[stand] for liberty and [stand] with the 

persecuted, to use and implement appropriate tools in the 

United States foreign policy apparatus, including diplomatic, political, commercial, charitable, educational, and 

cultural channels, to promote respect for religious freedom by all governments and peoples’’; and 

Whereas the United States must show strong international 

leadership when it comes to the advancement of religious 

freedoms, liberties, and protections: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) strongly condemns violence against religious 

3 minorities in the Middle East and any actions that 

4 limit the free expression and practice of faith by 

5 these minorities; 

6 (2) reaffirms the commitment of the United 

7 States to promoting religious freedom and tolerance 

8 around the world and helping to provide protection 

9 and relief to religious minorities facing persecution 

10 and violence; 

11 (3) calls on the governments of the Middle East 

12 to uphold the internationally recognized human right 


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1 to freedom from religious persecution and to end all 

2 forms of violence and discrimination against reli3 gious minorities; and 

4 (4) urges the Obama Administration to appoint 

5 a Special Envoy to Promote Religious Freedom of 

6 Religious Minorities in the Near East and South 

7 Central Asia, as Congress called for in the Near 

8 East and South Central Asia Religious Freedom Act 

9 of 2014 (Public Law 113–161). 

Æ 


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